When you look at those digital artwork, pay attention to their colour scheme, creative ideas, and manipulation techniques used. Try and learn from the good works is the only way to make yourself better :)

Hope you enjoy those works as much as I did and find them inspirational! Meanwhile, if you have some cool designs and would like to be featured in this series, you can simply join the PSD Vault DeviantART group.

If you like those works, then show those awesome designers some support! Click on the image to visit the author’s DA page and drop them a comment :)

Here goes the list, enjoy!

That’s it for this showcase! Hope you enjoy those digital artworks from the PSDVault DeviantART group and find them inspirational!

If you have some cool designs and would like to be featured in this series, you can simply join the PSD Vault DeviantART group.

Till next time, have a great day!

By definition, a clipping mask:

“lets you use the content of a layer to mask the layers above it. The masking is determined by the content of the bottom or base layer. The non-transparent content of the base layer clips (reveals), the content of the layers above it in the clipping mask. All other content in the clipped layers is masked out.”

On top of clipping mask, to produce the final effect for this tutorial, I also used a number of other settings such as layer blending, filter effect and adjustment layers.

Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

PSD File Download

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Crack Texture

Water Brushsets (choose one from the list)

Step 1

Let’s start by creating a document with black background, use the type tool to type a letter on the document:

Now load the stone texture into Photoshop, use the rectangular marquee tool to select a piece as shown below:

Copy and paste this piece of texture onto our text, resize and rotate it as shown below:

Step 2

Now if you right click on the texture layer, you will see an option called “Create Clipping Mask”, click on it:

And you will texture becomes an overlay for the text, with the rest of the area disappeared:
 

Repeat Step 1 and 2, cover the entire text with stone texture – we can use this to get some practices with clipping mask:

Step 3

Now we want to remove part of the text with a layer mask add to text layer:

Now you will because we have the texture layers as clipping masks, the parts we erased on the text will fade on the texture layers as well:

I would also like to mention that you can add adjustment layer as clipping mask as well – make sure you tick the “Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask” option – this way the effect will only apply to the layer below the adjustment layer:

Try adding a few adjustment layers (curves, levels) as clipping mask to the texture layer, and test the effect.

Step 4

(Attention – the rest of this tutorial involves some advanced techniques, there is no need to proceed if you just want to learn something about clipping masks)

Now we can add some flowing water effect to the image – we can use the water brush to paint some dripping/splashing water:

Use a liquify filter to warp this water pattern as shown below:

Repeat this above step, make several water pattern layers and attach them around the text:

Step 5

For some final retouches, I added some cloud effect with some cloud brushes I downloaded from the web:

Also added some grungy textures around the canvas for some decoration:

Finally, I flattened the image and duplicate the background layer, and applied some “Accented Edges” filter effect on the duplicated layer – use layer mask to hide some parts of this duplicated layer to reveal the background layer:

I then further added some slight colour adjustment and here is the final effect I have: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful! Till next time, have a great day!

The showcase will run at the end of each month,  and if you have any suggestion of great tutorials, please feel free to contact me.

In this January edition, I have collected 9 great Photoshop tutorials with unique and curious effect  for you, hope you enjoy it!

How Digitally Paint Realistic Hair

so many artists just starting to draw hair and drawing it..errmm…like a bar of steel?  When you paint/draw the first base lines for your hair try to make it swirly and fluid, nice curve lines. In this tutorial we’ll learn the whereabouts of four species of hair.

Create an abstract liquid effect

In this walkthrough, the author will show you how to use a photograph, some 2D elements and a 3D render to create an abstract liquid effect with a real sense of motion.

Using Custom Photoshop Brushes to Create an Immersive Lighting Effect

In this this tutorial I’m going to walk you through a few steps on how to use custom Photoshop brushes along with a few vector elements to create this immersive lighting effect composition. You’ll be surprised at how easy the steps are to create this piece.

Photoshop Tutorial: Create an Emotional Post War Scene

In this photoshop tutorial, we will learn how to create an emotional post war scene photo manipulation. We will combine some picture to be manipulated into something unique and create scene with the feel of post apocalyptic war.

How to Create a Steampunk Type Treatment in Photoshop

In this tutorial, the author is going to walk through the techniques I used to create this steampunk type treatment in Photoshop.

How to Create a Fantasy Haven for Travelers in Photoshop

Learn how to create a secret haven in the sky! This Photoshop tutorial will show you how to create this surreal scene where boats pick up travelers and fly them to a secret mountain passage in the sky. This tutorial will show you how to blend images seamlessly and work with lighting and shadows.

One Moment – Manipulation Tutorial

In this Photoshop tutorial I will show you how to create a nice spotlight effect on an image using the brush tool. It’s not a difficult effect to achieve but patience is needed. I used a single stock image which can be downloaded for free. Hope you like the result.

Making of the Challenger

In this tutorial, the author will show you how to use Photoshop and Wacom tablet to paint an awesome dragon.

How to Create a Deus-Ex Inspired Photo Manipulation with Photoshop

In this tutorial you will be shown how to create a Deus EX inspired high-tech eyeball by using retouching techniques and creating a futuristic iris using Shape layers and Layer Styles.

That’s it for this January showcase! Hope you enjoy these tutorials and find them useful! If you would like to get the latest updates from us, you can simply follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Till next time, have a great day!

Hope you enjoy those works as much as I did and find them inspirational! Meanwhile, if you have some cool designs and would like to be featured here on PSD Vault, you can simply join the PSD Vault Flickr group.

If you like those works, then show those awesome designers some support! Click on the image to visit the author’s flickr page and drop them a comment :)

Here goes the list, enjoy!

That’s it for this showcase! Hope you enjoy it and find them inspirational. Meanwhile, if you have some cool designs and would like to be featured here on PSD Vault, you can simply join the PSD Vault Flickr group.

The aim of this tutorial is to show how you can manipulate texture/stock image with layer masks and blending options to create special effect. Also I will show you how to use adjustment layer to add colours in the end.

Customize your glossy brochure printing to promote your small business.

Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

PSD File Download

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Space Brush Pack

Metal Texture 1

Metal Texture 2

Step 1

Create a new document sized 800px * 1040px with black background. Create a new layer and use the space brush to paint a background pattern, compress it down and set some perspective to it as shown below:

Create a new layer and further add some space pattern, reduce the layer opacity to around 80% and use a soft eraser to erase the centre portion as shown below:

Hint: by performing the above two things, we added some depth to the image and get ready for adding the text in the following step.

Let’s add some simple light effect – create a new layer and use a big white brush to paint a dot light as shown below:

Use a soft eraser with smaller brush size than the dot light, erase the top right part of the dot as shown below:

Duplicate this layer and rotate the duplicated layer 180 degrees, you will have the following effect:

Step 2

We can now work on the letter. Type a letter on the centre of the canvas, as shown below:

Load the “metal texture 1″ image into Photoshop. Then load this text layer selection and move it to the metal texture, copy and paste it back onto our text:

Turn off the original text layer, and you will have the following effect:

Open up the liquify filter, grab the forward warping tool and make sure you enable “Show Backdrop” and use the following setting: (this will make the background visible, easier to apply the liquify effect)

Go crazy with the liquify tool, add some flowing effect around the text edges as shown below:

Then erase the following area with the a soft eraser:

Step 3

We can now apply some adjustments layers on the metal texture as clipping mask:

Black and White

Levels

Curves

Then use the Lasso Tool with 30px feather, draw a selection on the following area:

Then add another Levels adjustment layer as clipping mask: (this will darken the Lasso Selection)

Render or paint some cloud (with cloud or smoke brush, plenty of them on the internet) around the text to add dramatic effect:

Step 4

We can now add some small metal particles into the image – load the “metal texture 2″ image into Photoshop and use the quick selection tool to select a few small pieces on the image:

Copy and paste the selection onto our document, erase the edges to blend those small pieces into the main text:

Duplicate the selection a few times, attach them to different parts of the text, as shown below:

Merge the duplicated layers and apply the following black and white adjustments to it:

and here is the effect so far:

You can also further duplicate this metal texture layer a few more times, resize them to small scale and move them around the text, as shown below:

Step 5

To add some extra effect, I decided to use the Pen Tool to draw some red lines around the text. So let’s use the Pen Tool to draw a work path as shown below:

Prior to stroking the path, go to the brush panel and set the brush size to 3px, hardness 95%, red colour as shown below:

Then go back to select the Pen Tool, right-click and choose “Stroke Path”:

Stroke this path with the following settings:

and you will have the following effect:

Duplicate this line layer a few more times and resize each duplicated layer and rotate them, attach the lines to different part of the text:

You can also mix some yellow lines via adjusting the Colour Hue, in order to add some variety on the text:

Step 6

OK we’re almost done! For some final retouches, we can flatten the image and apply the following Smart Sharpen filter to the image to sharpen the text a bit:

To add some colour effect to image, I apply the following image adjustment layers to the image:

Selective Color

Curves

Brightness and Contrast

I then further added some slight colour adjustment and here is the final effect I have: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful! Till next time, have a great day!

Welcome to another Exclusive Photoshop tutorial written specifically for the PSD Vault VIP Members. In this tutorial, we will explain to you some sweet techniques to use Adobe Illustrator in your advantage for your Photomanipulation work in Adobe Photoshop. Aside some texture tips and brush packs worth downloading. Hope you enjoy it :)

If you’re VIP member, you can log in to the VIP Members Area and click on Exclusive Tutorial button to download the tutorial. If you’re yet to become a VIP member, you can simply click on the banner below to signup:

To find out more about PSD Vault VIP Membership, check out: http://www.psdvault.com/vip

Final Image Preview

(click to enlarge)

VIP Members Only Tutorial

This tutorial is written exclusively by Bram Vanhaeren for PSD Vault VIP members:

Bram is 21 years old and studies cross media design. He’s been developing his style since his first pen tool experiments in Illustrator about 5 years ago. Bram’s style ranges from simple illustrations and typography to mixed media artwork.

Visit Bram’s Blog

What You Will Learn

In this tutorial, we will explain to you some sweet techniques to use Adobe Illustrator in your advantage for your Photomanipulation work in Adobe Photoshop. Aside some texture tips and brush packs worth downloading.

Tutorial Spotlights

Interested? Log in to your VIP members area to download it now :)

Not a member yet? Click on the banner below to sign up now:

To find out more about PSD Vault VIP Membership, check out: http://www.psdvault.com/vip

Hope you enjoy it and find it useful! Thank you for your support and have a nice day!

When you look at those digital artwork, pay attention to their colour scheme, creative ideas, and manipulation techniques used. Try and learn from the good works is the only way to make yourself better :)

Hope you enjoy those works as much as I did and find them inspirational! Meanwhile, if you have some cool designs and would like to be featured in this series, you can simply join the PSD Vault DeviantART group.

If you like those works, then show those awesome designers some support! Click on the image to visit the author’s DA page and drop them a comment :)

Here goes the list, enjoy!

That’s it for this showcase! Hope you enjoy those digital artworks from the PSDVault DeviantART group and find them inspirational!

If you have some cool designs and would like to be featured in this series, you can simply join the PSD Vault DeviantART group.

Till next time, have a great day!

I will also use some basic image adjustments and photo retouch techniques along the way.

Cheap printing services can turn your digital creations into works of art you can resell for big profits.

Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

Alternative Version

PSD File Download

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Model

Water Color Brushes

Various Grunge Brushes

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1200px*800px with a dark grey background, create a new layer with around 30% layer opacity, and paint some grunge patterns around the canvas:

Duplicate this layer once and flip the duplicated layer horizontally, you will have the following effect:

Step 2

Now let’s cut out the face portion from the model image we downloaded – use the Pen Tool to draw a path and make a selection as shown below:

Set Feather Radius to 0 pixel, and press “OK”:

Use the Refine Edge filter (Ctrl + Alt + R) to smooth the edge a bit:

Copy and paste the selection onto our document, resize it to fit the scale:

Step 3

Now let’s get to the fun part of this tut – masking the face! Use the brushes you downloaded as eraser, erase some parts of the face off via layer mask:

Left Side of the face:

Top part of the face:

Right side of the face:

The above screenshots are indicative only – of course you can experiment different brushes and see what result they will bring you:

Step 4

Now let’s add some image adjustment layers to this face – apply the following 3 adjustment layers as clipping mask to it:

Black and White

Erase the following area on the black and White adjustment layer mask to reveal the lips and parts of the eyes:

Levels

Curves

and here is the effect so far:

Step 5

Let’s add some further touches to the face – firstly, I add some tear drop mark to just below the eyes using a small, soft black brush:

I used the cloud filter, added some cloud around the face area for some dramatic effect:

You can also add some particle paintings around the head area using some particle brushes, as shown below:

Step 6

OK for some final adjustments, I flatten the image and duplicate the background layer, apply the following Reduce Noise (Filter > Noise > Reduce Noise) settings to the duplicated layer to sharpen the image a bit:

Add a new “Selective Colour” adjustment layer to apply some colours onto the image:

For the selective colour adjustment, you only need to adjust the white, neutrals and black colours, have a play and see what result they will bring you:

I used a warm colour scheme with red and yellowish colour, as shown below:

If you would like to know a bit more about applying colour effect, check out this video tutorial I have below:

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful! Till next time, have a great day!

Hope you enjoy those works as much as I did and find them inspirational! Meanwhile, if you have some cool designs and would like to be featured here on PSD Vault, you can simply join the PSD Vault Flickr group.

If you like those works, then show those awesome designers some support! Click on the image to visit the author’s flickr page and drop them a comment :)

Here goes the list, enjoy!

That’s it for this showcase! Hope you enjoy it and find them inspirational. Meanwhile, if you have some cool designs and would like to be featured here on PSD Vault, you can simply join the PSD Vault Flickr group.

Along the way, we will be using some simple retouch skills, as well as some custom brushes and the liquify filter to produce special effect.

Order business card printing from online printing companies, like Next Day Flyers.

Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

PSD File Download

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Crack Texture

Model by faestock

Eagle

Smoke Brush

Step 1

Create a new document with black background sized 800px * 1100px. Load the crack texture into Photoshop and cut out a piece of it and paste it onto our document, compress it down and perspective it with the free transform tool:

Use a soft eraser to remove the edges off the texture as shown below:

Hint: set the eraser flow and opacity to around 50% both. This will help creating depths and light on the ground.

Add the following 3 adjustment layers to the ground texture layer as clipping mask:

Black and White

Levels

Curves

and here is the effect so far:

Step 2

Create a new layer and use either the smoke brushset and the cloud filter to add some cloud effect

Load the model image into Photoshop, cut out the model and paste it onto our document – don’t worry if the edges is a bit rough, it’s not important in the tutorial:

We would be adding some flying/liquid effect to the model – so bring up the liquify filter and apply the following settings to the forward warp tool:

Apply this to the model’s skirt and some other areas as shown below:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 3

Now let’s add the following 3 adjustment layers to this model layer as clipping mask:

Black and White

Levels

Curves

Use a soft black brush to paint some shadow under the model:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 4

Now let’s add some hair to the model to make up for the selection – create a new layer and draw a curvy path as shown below:

Right-click the path and choose “Stroke Path” option:

Stroke the path with a 3px hard white brush (with simulate pressure option turned on), duplicate the stroked line layer a few more times, adjust each layers opacity for some depth:

Duplicate this hair group a few more times, resize and attach them to different part of the model’s hair for some variety:

Step 5

Now let’s add some simple nebula effect around the model – Create a new layer and use a soft white brush to paint a big white dot over the model:

Use the smoke brush set as an eraser, erase some parts off the white light (specially in the centre and around the edge) as shown below:

Use the liquify filter’s forward warp tool, push the cloud from the centre toward the edge, you will have the effect below:

Erase the left half of the cloud and leave only the liquified part, and here is the effect so far:

Duplicate this layer a few times, resize and scatter them around the model as shown below:

Step 6

Now let’s adding flying creature into the image. I decided to go with eagles – and let’s load the eagle stock image into Photoshop, cut of two of them from the image and paste it onto our document, resize them to a smaller scale, place them above the cloud as shown below:

If the edges of the edges happen to a be rough, we can apply some refine edge filter settings to smooth them out:

Hint: you will need to select the layer first before applying the refine edge filter.

Add the following 2 adjustment layers as clipping mask to this eagle layer:

Black and White

Levels

and here is the effect after the adjustments for the eagles:

Step 7

OK we’re almost done! For some final retouches, I added some highlight with a soft white brush painting over the hair area shown below:

Also I used some feather brushes to paint some falling feather to add some more surreal effect:

Further added some colour with a few colour balance adjustment layers on top of the all layers, and here is the final effect I have: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful! Till next time, have a great day!